With or without visual identification of a landing site, pilots increasingly rely on information presented on aircraft display systems while landing. Aircraft display systems may have head up displays and/or head down displays. Head up displays are designed to help with the transition from instrument flying to a visual landing segment, but generally do not provide all of the information required for a zero-zero (limited or no visibility) landing. In contrast, many aircraft head-down displays provide a visual segment to landing, in support of zero-zero landing, but limit the ability to use the displayed information for actual aircraft control inputs all the way to landing.
Landing generally requires an awareness of roll, pitch, and yaw, as well as of a potential stall. These pieces of information are generally provided in varying locations around an image on an aircraft display, in different formats, and not integrated with each other. For example, there is often a turn and slip indicator for yaw (the turn and slip indicator may appear as a bubble), a caged flight path and true flight path indicator from which to deduce a pitch angle and an angle of attack (AOA), and roll may be displayed as an arc showing an angle of bank. Staying situationally aware requires keeping an eye on these disparate regions on the display, and mentally integrating the information, which may be cognitively demanding. Adding to that, any loss in situational awareness during landing can dramatically increase cognitive demand.
Hence, an improved aircraft display system and method that integrates AOA, roll, and yaw information and may be used during a zero-zero landing is desirable. The present invention addresses at least this need.